With the sentence that “sleep the gods have bestowed upon us as the balm of troubles”, the Ancient Greek essayist Plutarch described his belief that in sleep the soul leaves the body and that, while sleeping, human beings are surrounded by a particular form of lightness. Of high significance for a restful night is the quality of the mattress one sleeps upon. Against this backdrop, the AiR Layer overlay mattress was designed for a new sleep experience. Placed on top of a regular bed mattress, it offers a high level of comfort. A striking feature is that it is as light as it is thin, and that manufacturing it requires very little physical material. Its small volume is based on an innovative core material made of a specific multilayered woven fabric with an original monofilament yarn using polyester. This allows the yarn to occupy only two per cent of this material’s volume, while the remaining 98 per cent is occupied by air. The compressed core, in combination with the air surrounding it, is at the heart of the particular properties of the AiR Layer. The mattress is available in a “hard” and a “basic” model. A sophisticated design concept and manufacturing process resulted in a high-quality mattress for an advanced sleeping experience – its functionality and airy lightness are the expression of inspirational design thinking.